Her grandparents moved to Cordoba to make a fresh start but the worst was yet to come.

In 1992 paramilitaries turned up and demanded his land but when the family resisted a bloodbath ensued.

Maria said: “Seven people were killed in a massacre including my grandparents, two uncles and a cousin.

“Their heads were cut off with machetes and the bodies were mutilated and burned.”

Using her hands to outline the shape of a small parcel, Maria added: “That was all that was left of them.”

Two uncles from Chigorodo reported the massacre and joined the Army as a form of protection.

Simon Murphy

Emberra villiage, La Coquera near Apartado, Colombia

But Maria said both men were tracked down and killed while on leave.

The latest tragedy to hit the family happened just four months ago.

Her uncle, Gildardo Antonio Padilla, became the third land claimant to be murdered in Valencia, Cordoba in 2013.

The courageous community leader was gunned down days after he spoke out about paramilitary attempts to buy his land.

Maria said: “He gave a video interview and it was put on the internet.

“He denounced the people who had come to his house and tried to pay him off for his land.

“I think he had had enough and wanted to make it public despite the consequences.

“The next day someone came to his house and offered him a package of money for the land.

“They made him sign papers.”

Despite the deal Gildardo, 42, was living on borrowed time.

The killers struck on November 17 as he delivered a parcel to San Pedro on a motorbike.

Maria said: “It happened around 6.30pm but, for whatever reason, the police didn’t go and pick up his body.

“One of my uncles had to collect the body but he was scared for his own life.

“The following day he was moved to a secret location under a programme to help people who face serious threat.

“We were told the men who killed my uncle Gildardo came looking for him so he just got out in time.

“He is not in the country any more.”

Maria lives in fear and was only willing to share her story if her identity was protected.

Fighting back tears, she said: “This all started when I was seven and it has been very traumatic.

“I have received psychological support and I have to find a way to move forward.

“I do suffer panic attacks when I think about what has become of my family and the children of my uncles who have been killed.”

Maria has submitted a claim under the new Land Restitution law but she would opt for compensation rather than return to the original family farm.

One of the major challenges of the legislation is that the authorities cannot offer any security guarantees.

Asked about her hopes for the future, Maria said: “From a family of 15 brothers and sisters there are only three left.

“With all my family dead I don’t really have much hope for the future.

“Nothing in the world can repair the damage or compensate for what has happened.”

In the serene surroundings of a banana plantation we spoke to another family who were given just 24 hours to flee their homes after a massacre in a neighbouring village.

Sixteen people were killed by the paramilitary Self Defence Units in the 1995 atrocity in Galletas.

Now the Perez family hope they will be able to reclaim their original 20 hectares of land in Paquemas.

Mum Rosa, 46, said: “That is the hope we have but we know it is not going to be easy.

“The people who have our land are powerful people and we are scared of repercussions.

“Some families have received threats.”

The significance of the claim was summed up by her son Carlos, 22,

He said: “I want to study medicine, become a doctor and one day set up my own charity foundation.

“But I need money to be able to study.

“Government support is not enough.”

His university fees would cost 6.2m to 6.9m pesos per semester (£1,850 to £2,059).

Rosa said: “The land represents his future.

“If we have the land to work then he can realise his dream.

“In order to have peace in Colombia we have to provide our young people with opportunities.

“If we don’t educate them then they will go down the wrong road.”

Simon Murphy

Armiro Ospino

FORCED FROM HIS HOME

ARMIRO Ospino was working on his land in August 1997 when paramilitaries arrived and put a gun to his head.

He was accused of being a guerilla and told to get off his 5,500 hectare farm for good.

It would be the first of four displacements he would experience.

Armiro , 59, said: “I just had the clothes I was wearing.

“I had to start again from zero.”

Two years later he was working on a banana plantation in Nueva Colonia when paramilitaries again turned up without warning.

As local police looked on Armiro was bound and forced into the back of a pick up truck.

He said: “It was known as the stairway to heaven.

“Once you are put in one of those trucks you don’t come out alive.

“I believed I was a dead man.”

Armiro was only saved when the owner of the plantation turned up and told the thugs he was no threat.

By 2003 he was back working on a farm.

Armiro said: “One day paramilitaries arrived, walked up to a blacksmith and shot him dead just 30 metres away from me.

“They claimed I had passed information to the guerillas and told me: ‘You need to disappear now’.”

Armiro again fled for his life and spent five hours following a river before being reunited with his wife.

The dad-of-three remained composed as he told his remarkable life story.

But he broke down as he highlighted the financial hardships facing his family.

He said: “I have struggled to find work and my daughters have been working as prostitutes.

“Our only hope for the future is to get our land back.”

LEGISLATION

THE Victims and Land Restitution Law (2011) recognised the existence of an armed conflict - something that had previously been denied by the state - and created a legal framework for land to be returned.

More than 5.6m people have been internally displaced in Colombia since 1985 – more than Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF) is providing families with legal support and training in how to initiate a case under Law 1448.

The charity is also documenting cases and providing ongoing support to claimants.

Mark Camburn, SCIAF’s programme officer for Latin America, said: “Refusing to move has led to the deaths of countless people, all at the hands of violent guerrillas, paramilitaries and government troops.

“We are helping people to reclaim their land and gain legal land titles but the situation remains extremely complicated.

“It is also extremely dangerous for people who are reclaiming their land.

“In many cases, new tenants and owners now occupy the old homes, farms and land.

“Often the people who forced them to move in the first place have gone unpunished and remain at large in society.

“The legacy of this war and the mass displacement of people will take decades to sort out.”

The Colombian Government has pledged to restore 2m hectares of land in 10 years.

But this does not address the whole problem as one estimate suggests people have been displaced from 6.6m hectares of land.

Those who do not wish to return or are too scared to do so will be eligible for compensation.

Forced displacement, like the conflict, is still ongoing and both indigenous and Afro-Colombian people remain the worst affected.

Paramilitary groups have also continued to operate under different names, despite demobilisation.

One has even emerged called the Army against the Restitution of Land.

Cesar Acosta, co-ordinator of the Apartado Land Restitution Office, told me: “Officially paramilitaries don’t exist any more but the actors are still around.”

His office is currently working through 4,000 applications but, to date, only one has been settled.